straying from the straight and narrow, but odds were good that there were other such innovative techniques just waiting to be discovered. Someday, that hurdle would be cleared, too. The bigger problem was the here and now. Too many people knew that Kaito Sena was the vessel, so leaving God with him was too great a risk. As such, I have no choice but to make a contract with the Kaiser, grow my power through battle, and become God's vessel myself. With Kaito Sena left behind... The amount of mana he's amassed towers head and shoulders over that of any other. Keeping me hidden will be child's play for him. It will wound him to have to do so, but...he'll have Hina by his side. I'm sure he'll be fine. Elisabeth nodded as the image of that lovable maid flashed through her mind. At the moment, they were storing the crystal outside the beastfolk lands. The beastfolk would want to point fingers for their historic defeat, and there was a fear that both Vyadryavka and the crystal itself would come under fire. Right before moving it, Elisabeth laid out her thinking to everyone. Izabella had hesitated for a moment, then replied simply, "It won't be easy." Jeanne just shrugged. And the Kaiser, as though filling in for Vlad, responded with exasperation. He shook his tail and laughed in that ever-so-human voice of his. "Some God, getting dragged this way and that way and every other which way like that. Idiots, the lot of you. You know, I almost wonder what the greatest idiot I know would have thought of all this..." Elisabeth didn't have to wonder. Kaito Sena was going to be livid. This isn't what I wanted for you! he would no doubt angrily cry. What do you think it was I fought so hard for?! However, the situation was different now. She couldn't protect him anymore. Because of that, this was their only option. Knowing that filled Elisabeth not with hesitation but with an emotion that bore a strong resemblance to relief. It was almost as though she actually wanted to lay down her burden. However, Elisabeth chose to focus her attention away from that secret desire of hers. All that mattered was that her plan was the best one for the situation. If it didn't change what she had to do, then how she felt about it didn't much matter. However, there was still an elephant in the room. With Alice as she is, will we truly be able to capture her? "I can see you've made up your mind... In that case, it's paramount that we get a read on Alice Carroll's movements. There's a problem, though. At the moment, she's completely vanished from the site of the settlement." "Aye, so she has. And I haven't the faintest idea as to why." "It's odd, isn't it? Where could she have gone?" Both of them had dropped their voices to whispers. They could feel itâ€”something was terribly amiss about the whole situation. Right after the humans and beastfolk made their retreat, one mystery had thrown everyone for a loop. The disappearance of Alice Carroll. And to muddy the waters even further, the first ones who'd begun searching for Alice were none other than the mixed-race people themselves. As it turned out, the scene from Vlad's window was the last time anyone had actually laid eyes on her. After that, she simply headed off somewhere without even telling her allies. Elisabeth thought back to the way she'd screamed upon losing Lewis. "How dare you. HOW DARE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" That roar had been packed with more fury than should have even been possible. It was unclear what she intended to do next, but one thing was for certain. Her striking Vlad down was only the beginning. Alice would never forgive them. For just as I love Kaito Sena... ...Alice Carroll loved Lewis. It was as a child loved their parent. As a person loved another. As one would love any whom they ought to love. And as such, there could be no forgiveness. Not for anyone. Not ever. Suddenly, Elisabeth realized that something was off. Small specks of something were raining down on her shoulder. She looked up in confusion, only to discover that small chunks of debris were falling from the ceiling. Well, no matter then, she thought and turned her gaze back down. A moment later, though, she let out a small gasp. What was happening shouldn't have been possible. That chamber had been crafted by the Saint herself. Even the finest of modern technology wouldn't have been able to replicate it, and its seamless walls boasted hardness unparalleled. There was no reasonable way debris should have been falling from its ceiling. The next moment, a violent tremor ran through the entire tomb. Maclaeus lost his balance and nearly toppled over. He clung to a coffin for support and shouted. "Wh-what...what's that?!" "It's the surface! I can sense several sources of mana; this isâ€”" A chill ran down Elisabeth's entire body. This was no ordinary dark magic at play. She could sense powerful, malignant presences appearing one after another, each horrible and alien enough to qualify as a monster in their own right. During a brief moment of relative quiet, Elisabeth took off at a dash. Leaving Maclaeus behind, she threw the chamber's heavy doors ajar. From there, she made for the stairs. Teleportation circles didn't work in the tomb, and although there were a number of spots designated for their use, she didn't have time to waste standing in line. Instead, she raced up the stairs alongside the paladins and Royal Knight guards doing the same. A handful of them noticed who she was, but none of them commented on that fact. They all just kept running. All the while, the tremors continued, each one dashing Elisabeth against the wall. And they had only grown stronger by the time she reached the final set of stairs. Several people even lost their footing and went tumbling down backward. One knight was falling in a particularly dangerous-looking manner, so Elisabeth kicked him back upright as she made her way to the surface. The moment she reached the entrance, she was greeted by the blinding light of day and a chorus of cries. The voices were definitely human. However, they sounded as much like demons as anything else. Eventually, she made her way outside and discovered a whole new hell laid out before her. A calamity cometh. No a calamity has come. To all the people of the land. The messenger blew the bugle of the end. It's time for a story. Normally, when someone died a death as pitiful, unseemly, cruel, and gruesome as a worm getting stepped on, they didn't get a second shot at life. It would be ridiculous to suggest that everyone simply got to go to the world of their dreams after they died. To sum it up, the answer was simple. Miracles didn't happen. That was all there was to it. Plus, even if they did get a second shot at life, sometimes all that awaited them were simply more horrors. Right now, Elisabeth was learning that fact firsthand. Pools of blackened crimson were spreading out all around the underground tomb. The pools, which looked like toxic swamps, were actually aberrant teleportation circles. They spread corrosively, paying no heed to the barrier the priests had set up around the entire Capital. The ground frothed, like the earth itself was boiling. Then several figures emerged through the circles, each more horrible than the circles themselves. The figures were human. But so, too, were they weapons. They had been transformed into fixed batteries. And the treatment they'd undergone was crueler than even La Mules's had been. Their eyelids were stitched together, their tongues had been plucked out, their teeth had been removed, their limbs had been severed, and their bodies had been affixed to pillories. And yet even so, they were still alive. All the fixed batteries were golems, which meant they were immortal as long as they didn't suffer catastrophic blood loss. In other words, the fixed batteries... ...were the broken husks of what had once been reincarnations. Elisabeth let out a faint murmur. "...This is beyond the pale." Those were people who had no business even being in that world, all made to bear unbelievable burdens. She had underestimated just how broken her late foe had been. Summoning Alice had taught Lewis that his method worked. And because of that, he must have repeated the process, finishing up one reincarnation after another. However, he had only one heart to give. That meant he could only make one Fremd Torturchen. If he tried to make more, it would only dilute the power each could command. But then what to do with the rest of the people he summoned? Worry not. There was no shortage of ways to put vessels with limitless mana to use. For example, this. He could assign demon contracts to the spare reincarnations willy-nilly, feed them pain, and expand their mana stores. From there, all he had to do was teach them how to shoot forward and train them to act on his signal. That way, he could build himself a mighty fine collection of fixed batteries. They had probably been in the proverbial shop up until then, which is why they hadn't been deployed earlier. Now, though, they were seeing their first live battle. As far as that world was concerned, it marked the first time someone had taken another sentient person and made them into a living weapon without their consent. The reincarnations' egos had been destroyed, but even so, the amount of hatred they fostered toward that world that had given them nothing but pain was downright terrifying. A bombardment poured from their mouths like both a wave of vomit and a chorus of screams. They were calamities given flesh, spreading beams of absolute destruction wherever they faced. And all the while, their screams never ceased. Nobody could so much as get close to them. And standing at the center of all this was an adorable little girl. Alice Carroll. To. Fro. Chitter. Chatter. There were voices. Throngs of people sobbing and screaming and trembling. Someone was loudly screaming. There were no words, only pain. Someone else was lamenting the terror of it all, their tone that of a person dashing through a field with deranged abandon and laughing their head off. "What's even happening?" And there, in that place that seemed halfway between a nightmare and reality, a young girl spoke. "Come now, let's be good girls and sing a song. "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall! Humpty Dumpty had a great fall! "All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again." The one thing that truly can't be put together again is this girl. Alice Carroll was broken. Elisabeth took a moment to let that fact sink in. As she did, the girl stopped singing and slowly spun to face her. The white, rabbit-ear-like ribbons attached to her oversized hat swayed from side to side. Just like before, Alice bent one knee in an elegant curtsy, and her white hair flopped adorably about. Their surroundings had been reduced to a grim hellscape. This was the Wonderland Alice herself had built. However, the way Alice faced her was much the same as ever. Alice spoke up. "Come on, Elisabeth! Let's plaaay!" Her tone was bright and cheery. It was as though she didn't have a single care in the world. Alice Carroll had broken past the point of no return. Nobody could put her together again. Elisabeth could tell that all this was happening because Lewis had been killed. But that wasn't the whole story. The mixed-race people being killed had started it as well, as had Alice'sâ€”that was, Sara Yuuki'sâ€”brutal death. By now, they were all avengers. Everyone hated everyone. And the