houses, he could see lights flickering. Apparently, there were more people than he'd expected who hadn't taken shelter. He could imagine any number of reasons for thatâ€”perhaps they didn't want to leave the familiarity of their homes, or perhaps they didn't trust the Church in the wake of the God pillar being erected. However, there was something eerie about them that made goose bumps run across his skin. Upon closer inspection, the people clustered around the fires that had been lit amid the debris seemed oddly tense. Something was off. Trusting his instincts, Kaito quietly asked Izabella about it. "Hey, there's a bunch of people who don't look like they're heading for the shelter. What's up with them?" "...In truth, that was something I needed to talk to you about." "Well, that's ominous. Why do you sound so serious?" "Everyone has their own reasons for not going to the shelter. Many of them probably just don't want to bear the psychological strain of staying somewhere they're not used to... However, there are also those among them who fear the masses, and others who are carrying out a plot." "People who fear the masses? Carrying out a plot?" Deep wrinkles etched themselves into Kaito's brow. It sounded like the former viewed the masses as somehow dangerous, and the latter were committing some sort of crime. Izabella gave him a short nod. Then she elaborated: "Deplorably, the damages didn't just arise at the Capital. In fact, the number of incidents here were probably on the lower side. Humanity comprises about eighty percent of the Capital's population. The farther north you go, and the poorer the towns and villages get, the higher the number of mixed-race demi-humans and beastfolk. If you include all the unreported cases from up there, the incident is more than grave enough to carve a dark page in our history books." "Your preface is too long. Just tell me what happened." "...You really are just like Elisabeth." "Please." "Mixed-race demi-humans and beastfolk were massacred." A cold, heavy wind blew between the two of them. Kaito shut his mouth tight. Izabella stopped talking as well. Kaito silently turned to look back at the distant, wavering flames and the corpses scattered about. Then he slowly wrung a quiet voice out from his throat. "...You're saying with all these underlings running about and killing people, people started killing their own kind?" "Tragically, yes." "Why? There's no reason. No, even if it doesn't make sense, there must be a reason. What is it?" Kaito's voice was threatening as he posed his question. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Izabella's silver hair wave gently. When he looked, he saw she, too, had turned her gaze to the fires blazing in the night. He squeezed his fists tight. A man-made massacre. Even if it had some connection to the Diablo pillar, it was still a tragedy that defied comprehension. To put it simply, it's something we absolutely can't allow. "The cause of it all was the desire for salvation." "Salvation? How is salvation related to a massacre?" "It only became evident after La Christoph's investigation, but many of the most fanatical members of the reconstruction sect, as well as those who held leadership positions, asked to be transferred out to the countryside at about the same time they started using the transfigured paladins to conduct the beastfolk murders. Then they fled. And at the same time, rumors about the rebuilding began springing up." "What kind of rumors?" "Allegedly, 'Hark, O ye ignorant faithful. Pray that God shall be your salvation. For the beginning, the middle, and the end all lie in the palm of His hand,' 'The end-time is nigh,' and 'After the rebuilding, the devout faithful will be led into the new world.' And now right on schedule, the end-time truly is upon us." "The reconstruction sect won't actually be saved, obviously." Kaito spat out the words. Faithful or not, everyone's fate would be the same. Death. At the same time, he understood. To anyone who'd heard the misinformation ahead of time, it would seem as though the prophecy had been fulfilled. The miracle had occurred. And only the chosen ones would be saved. "However, the people who believed in that false salvation began massacring mixed-bloods." "But why? I don't understand how the two are connecâ€” No, wait. Don't tell me... No! That's so fucking stupid!" "I see you figured it out. That's rightâ€”they were killing heretics." Izabella laid out the horrible truth. Her voice was as cold as ice. Kaito sighed and buried his face in his hands. To be precise, the beastfolk and demi-humans weren't even heretics. The Three Kings of the Forest and the Sand Queen they revered had all been created by the Saint during the last rebuilding. Their origins were the same. But from the perspective of the Church's believers, the divergent beliefs among the various races must have made them look like they were completely different. And to be even more precise, they probably wanted to treat the other races as heretics so they could use them as that. What was "that"? Kaito lifted his face up from his palms. Then he quietly voiced his dreadful hypothesis. "...To use them as sacrifices?" "Yes. They were killing heretics so they could sacrifice them and prove their devotion to God." Izabella affirmed his suspicions. Kaito shook his head. There was no word to describe those believers' actions but foolish. After all, it had been meaningless. The Church's teachings didn't even mention sacrifices being necessary in the first place. But when faced with chaos and the fear of dying, people were liable to reach out for the simplest, cruelest methods available to them. Her voice still frigid, Izabella elaborated on her statement. "The only people who could state with confidence they'd be led into the new world were those who were truly pious. But the end-time actually came. So in order to be saved, people felt they had to immediately start demonstrating to God how devout they truly were. Sacrificing others was a nice, easy-to-measure method." "So they said, kill those who don't believe in God. But in truth, they did it because of how guilty they felt for not believing hard enough themselves, and because of how afraid they were that they wouldn't be saved, huh... It all sounds like some kind of sick joke." "That it does. Other than the few successful businessmen, most of the mixed-race people had no means of self-defense. The demi-humans think blood purity is king. They would never protect those of mixed race. Because of all the chaos, the beastfolk couldn't muster a response. And we had our hands full with the underlings. In short, they had no way to protect themselves, and nowhere to run." Kaito bit down hard on his lip. Several drops of blood ran down his thin jaw. Once more, he was being forced to confront a cruel reality that he'd thought he understood. He couldn't save everyone. Still, though... ...These deaths are pointless. There's no good reason for them! Kaito Sena howled internally. Religious conflicts existed even back in his old world. There was no shortage of examples where people carried out racial genocides in times of war, too. Just as people were capable of putting their lives on the line to protect others, they were just as capable of killing one another like insects. Despite possessing reason, they often acted like animals. Kaito was well aware of that contradiction. But right now, being confronted with that fact felt like he was getting his entrails scooped out with a knife. At that very moment, there were people in the world sacrificing their sanity in order to fight on everyone else's behalf. And on the other hand, there were people willing to massacre the innocent simply because they wanted to be saved. If that was the case, then at the end of the day... As far as salvation goes... "In the end, as far as salvation goes, is ours truly right?" Izabella's soft murmur overlapped with Kaito's doubts. He raised his head and looked her way. She was gazing out over the Capital with a pained expression on her face. Her words were practically a soliloquy. "Our salvation and the salvation the reconstruction sect aims for are divergent. And even within the reconstruction sect, the Grave Keeper's zealotry was different still. When she spoke, it was with unwavering pride and conviction. She described the world to come as 'God's kingdom, a perfect, ideal land.' 'All glory to God.' 'The miracle is upon us.'" "'There is no need for us here,' huh." Taking over for Izabella, Kaito completed the Grave Keeper's quote. Then he closed his eyes. In the darkness, he could picture that young girl, clad from head to toe in scarlet, smiling. There hadn't been so much as a sliver of hesitation in those rich-amber eyes of hers. They were so beautiful that Kaito felt as though they'd suck him in, and he had to shake his head to rid himself of the image. Izabella quietly exhaled, then continued her confession. "Allow me to speak candidly. When I first heard about the massacres, I stopped being so confident that the Grave Keeper had been wrong. Before the conditions for rebuilding are met, Elisabeth's body is going to break. With its contractor gone, Diablo will be released. Then while God is yet unable to act, Diablo will destroy its pillar and return all creation to nothingness. The rebuilding will not come to pass. But in reality, that's only true as far as we're concerned. It's perfectly reasonable to think that, even with His contractor destroyed, God will rebuild a new world atop the blank slate. And mankind will have no involvement in the process. A rebuilding with no one wielding the brush. At the end of it all, the new world will probably be completely different from this one, but...maybe that's for the best." "Izabella..." "'There is no need for us here.'" Izabella quickly recited back the Grave Keeper's words. She gently closed her eyes. There was no anger in her voice. Merely a deep, pervasive sadness. "Given our situation, I find it hard to refute the Grave Keeper's sayings." Kaito Sena narrowed his eyes. He responded with mere silence. The weakness in her words was unlike Izabella. All the same, however, it was more like her than anything else. After all, Izabella Vicker believes in humanity. Even after having her body corrupted and being driven to the brink of death, she hadn't resented a soul. But the fact that she believed they were worth saving was precisely why she lamented the cruelty and weakness possessed by all of humanity, not just a few fanatics. Just like that woman who, long, long ago, had tried to save everyoneâ€” â€”Izabella had been disappointed in exactly the same way. Kaito thought back to a question he'd once been asked. It was a question that he, too, had asked himself no small number of times. Flocks of sheep are, fundamentally, stupid. But at the end of that day, is that truly not a sin? The ignorant had no right to cast blame, did they not? If that was the case, then didn't that make their entire way of life fundamentally wrong? Kaito slowly closed his eyes, then reminisced on all the various horrors he'd seen. In a sense, the people living in this world deserved all the tragedies that had befallen them. They had brought these terrors upon themselves. After all, the seed of evil strewn in it had only bloomed out of the disappointment of the woman who'd sacrificed herself. The moment the fourteen demons showed up, it was obvious that something needed to be done about them or the world would suffer a crippling blow. But even though everyone knew that, no one actually tried to do anything. No one except for one peerless sinner. The Torture