As per the previous meeting, once we finish evacuating the residents, we plan to launch an all-out attack on the demon with the support of the priests. And La Mules, the Shepherd, will be joining us as well." "Hey, Elisabeth?" "Now, of all times? What is it? If it's some idle nonsense, I shall strike you dead." "What's the Shepherd?" "A high priest who bears the authority to summon first-class mythical beasts and spirits. It would seem that quite the big shot has been slated to make an appearance." Elisabeth answered Kaito's question. From beside her, he saw her face stiffen a hair. Seeing that, he could tell that this person was the real deal. The paladinâ€”Izabellaâ€”continued talking. "In particular, the priests possess God's blessing, a boon that renders them inviolable by the hands of demons. The expanding demon body itself is unguarded, and the effectiveness of a magical beast attack should be obvious. Given those conditions, the Royal Knights and the paladins together should prove to be sufficient to subjugate the demon. We can settle this matter with mankind's hands alone; to rely on the Torture Princess now would sully the Church's pride." With that, she completed her dignified statement. The paladins around her nodded in assent. Upon hearing the paladins' true thoughts, Kaito's face twitched. The first one to respond, though, was Vlad. Tracing his own lips with his white, gloved hand, he laughed low. "Strong words from a young maiden who knows nothing of demons nor, I wager, the touch of a man. Go on then, my dear successor, give them a piece of your mind!" "What are you guys, dumb-asses?" Not waiting for Vlad to finish speaking, Kaito spoke of his own volition. Vlad's lips curled. Raising her elegant eyebrows, Izabella turned to face Kaito. "What did you just say?" "That demon is swallowing people up one by one and tormenting them. Even if you guys could defeat it on your own, you should be looking for any help you can get, even if it comes from a monster. That pride of yours can eat shit. If you think you've got time to be spewing garbage like that, why don't you go march outside and take a good, long look at all those faces covering the demon's surface?" Despite his rage, Kaito was utterly calm. His mind was cold and clear. His words themselves were coarse, but he layered them on in a level, icy voice. Then suddenly, he went silent. The gaze he focused on Izabella had no malice in it, simply pure questioning. "Don't you want to save them as soon as possible?" Surprisingly, no counterargument came. Disappointed, Kaito blinked. Izabella simply stared at him, eyes wide in puzzlement. Her face seemed ever so young and looked like she'd just been struck or like she'd just heard something she hadn't expected. She opened her mouth to speak. Before she could, one of the other paladins spoke up. "Who are you to talk? You've got a monster's arm, and you made a contract with the Kaiâ€”" "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, precisely. How very right you are!" All of a sudden, a lively voice rang though the air. Elisabeth clapped her hands together and grinned. As if inviting him to dance, she extended a hand toward the paladin about to make his rebuttal. "And on that note, I shall return home! Good work, everyone!" "No, wait, that... Godot Deus has to..." "...And if I were to say that, 'twould be you lot who would regret it. To think that you failed to understand even that much. I'd thought the paladins would be able to at least gauge how outclassed they were. You lot are like children, ignorant of your own limits." Elisabeth delivered scathing criticism. The atmosphere in the room froze over with a loud snap. At least, Kaito felt as though it had. Upon being verbally abused by the Torture Princess, the same woman who'd once slaughtered their comrades, a number of hands reached for swords. As they did, Kaito raised his beastly arm. Then he openly displayed a terrible bloodlust he'd accumulated from tasting death hundreds of times over. "Don't move. If you draw those, I'll make the first move. And I'm faster than you guys." The situation tottered on the precipice. Neither Godot Deus nor Vlad spoke, each surveying the other's movements. The paladins' eyes were filled with rage, and Kaito looked directly into them. "Please don't make me use the Kaiser's power for something as stupid as this." Suddenly, Elisabeth moved. Paying no heed to the tension filling the room, she majestically spread her arms wide and stomped the ground. For some reason, she began twirling, and her dress fluttered behind her. "God's blessing, eh? I see, I see. True, the Church's divine protection is effective against demons. However, demons exist to destroy God's creations. And that is what you all are. God's creations doomed to have your prayers dashed by the powers of darkness." The black cloth of her dress, the inside of which was dyed scarlet, spun like a pinwheel. Elisabeth continued in a lilting tone. "The demons invading the capital are running rampant, drawing their power from the bottomless well that is the suffering of your people. As the mass grows, its collection of pawns continues to multiply." She loudly slammed the tip of her heels onto the stone floor. Having gathered the full attention of everyone present, she stopped in her tracks and smoothly extended her arm toward the ceiling. "Numbers beget force. And one can accomplish much through the use of force." Darkness and crimson flower petals swirled at her fingertips, and she drew the Executioner's Sword of Frankenthal from within the vortex. Unsure of her intentions, the paladins tightened their grips on the hilts of their swords. Not sparing a glance in their direction, Elisabeth clutched her sword and glared at the ceiling as if looking for something. "As I thought. They're coming!" As she spoke, the ceiling of the tent warped like a pool of water struck by a school of fish. A moment later, it teared open. Kaito's eyes widened. Cacophonous laughter rang out, and some sort of ominous white mass descended upon them. Elisabeth swung her sword and reaped several of whatever it was that assailed them in a single swing. She brought her sword around with a backswing, slaying just as many. Even so, the mass had a sizable number of survivors swooping down on Kaito and the rest. A huge number of feathers filled the air, obscuring their vision. *** Reflexively, Kaito used his beastly arm to shred something flying in front of him. Still unclear as to his attacker's true nature, he frantically fought back against the waves of animosity and bloodlust bearing down on him. The paladins, on the other hand, tried to avoid the initial attack and calmly assess the situation. The difference in their judgments caused their fates to diverge. Several of the paladins had their heads torn off with force that would have been unthinkable had their foes been human. Blood gushed and sprayed as their armored bodies spun. With comically heavy noises, they toppled to the ground. Scraw, scraw, scraw, scraw, scraw! Round objects flew through the air to accompany the shrill laughter. The paladins reflexively caught them, then screamed when they realized that the objects were their comrades' heads. Amid the chaos, Izabella was the first to react. She quickly drew her sword, then swung it in a semicircle. Its blade glowed white, as the priests had apparently consecrated it, and she sliced open the stomach of one of their assailants. Kaito turned his gaze toward the collapsed corpse. It was an underling with the body of a dove and the head of a fish. Like some sort of cruel joke, its feathers were white. Splattered by the underling's blood and trampling on its guts, Izabella shouted. "Move! You'll make yourselves targets if you freeze up!" "Draw your swords, fools!" Godot Deus gave a rebuke, as well. The paladins, who'd been caught unawares by the atrocious attack, returned to their senses and drew their blades in succession. While that was going on, Elisabeth was slaying underlings with gorgeous, dance-like movements. She wasn't summoning torture devices, likely realizing that the confined space would result in friendly fire. She was prioritizing the underlings attacking the civil officials. Kaito followed her lead. Their enemy's ranks waned quickly. Their grotesque corpses littered the ground. Other than in the initial attack, none of the paladins had fallen. Making sure they had reclaimed their original presence of mind, Kaito called out. "Everyone, get down!" "Get down!" Izabella echoed his shout. Immediately afterward, Kaito snapped his fingers. "â€”La (dance)!" A massive blade flew through the air, just barely passing over the paladins' heads. Cleaved in half, the underlings toppled to the ground. Despite the torrential rain of blood pouring down on them, none of the paladins flinched. They quickly mopped up the underlings who'd evaded the blade. Eventually, the inside of the tent became quiet again. As though they'd traded places, screams rang out from outside. As she aggressively wiped blood off her face, Izabella spoke in astonishment. "Impossible... The barrier!" "Your paladins formed a perimeter around the square and maintained the barrier from there. The barrier is hemispherical, and your men form its center. In short, the barrier's thinnest point is overhead... The underlings must have gathered there, then broken through with sheer numbers. 'Tis no hard task, should they be willing to sacrifice a dozen or so of their forces." As she gave her dispassionate analysis, Elisabeth strode forward. Her lustrous black hair fluttered as she turned to briefly look over her shoulder. "Why are you all standing there so addled? If you wish to protect your allies and kill your foes, you'd best follow me." Her dress fluttered as she left the caved-in tent behind her. With Izabella at their head, the paladins snapped into action and went after her. Kaito was about to be reeled in as well, but he stopped himself. He quickly surveyed his surroundings. The civil officials were trembling, but none of them seemed to be badly injured. At some point, Vlad had vanished. He probably just got bored... What a carefreeâ€” Huh? Then Kaito realized that Godot Deus was staring at him. After making sure his jewel was undamaged, Kaito nodded. After exchanging a meaningful glance with Godot Deus, Kaito ran outside. The moment he did, he sucked in his breath. *** There, he found yet another hellscape spreading out before him. Just like before, the dove-bodied underlings were lopping people's heads off one after another. Blood shot out of their dismembered torsos before they spun and toppled over. Their severed heads crashed against the stone ground, popping like overripe fruits. At the same time, other underlings were grabbing a dozen or so people by the arms and forcibly dragging them toward the mass of flesh. "Ahhh! Ahhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!" Desperate screams filled the air as the people's legs flopped atop the tragic corpses. They looked almost like marionettes, playing out an act in a cruel comedy. However, their crazed screams were no doubt the real deal. "Heavens above!" Unable to bear the terrible spectacle, even one of the paladins maintaining the barrier was on the verge of fleeing. Frantically, Kaito went to try and stop him. However, before he could, Izabella admonished the man. "Stand your ground! Focus your mana on mending the damaged sections! We will deal with the intruders!" Right as she shouted, a new black shape rushed in through the cracks in the barrier. Izabella looked up pointedly. "...A second...wave?" The final word of her sentence was tinged with bewilderment. As he looked at the reinforcements, Kaito's eyes went wide. He muttered in astonishment. "No way... That's too cruel." The new underlings still had most of their human forms intact. Strange pink wings protruded from their naked backs. Each time they flapped, the